Bomb shelters are back - bunker builders see rise in sales amid North Korea tensions
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the era of nuclear
nightmares - of the atomic arms race, of backyard bomb shelters, of
schoolchildren diving under desks to practice their survival skills in the
event of an attack - seemed to finally, thankfully, fade into history.
Until now.
For some baby boomers, North Korea's nuclear advances and
President Donald Trump's bellicose response have prompted flashbacks to a time
when they were young, and when they prayed each night that they might awaken
the next morning. For their children, the North Korean crisis was a taste of
what the Cold War was like.
"I'm not concerned to where I can't sleep at night. But
it certainly raises alarms for Guam or even Hawaii, where it might be a real
threat," said 24-year-old banker Christian Zwicky of San Bernardino,
California.
People of his parents' generation were taught to duck and
cover when the bombs came. "Maybe those types of drills should come
back," Zwicky said.
He isn't old enough to remember the popular 1950s public
service announcement in which a cartoon character named Bert the Turtle teaches
kids how to dive under their desks for safety. But Zwicky did see it often
enough in high school history classes that he can hum the catchy tune that
plays at the beginning. That's when Bert avoids disaster by ducking into his
shell, then goes on to explain to schoolchildren what they should do.
"I do remember that," says 65-year-old retiree
Scott Paul of Los Angeles. "And also the drop drills that we had in
elementary school, which was a pretty regular thing then."
Even as a 10-year-old, Paul said, he wondered how much good
ducking under a desk could do if a bomb powerful enough to destroy a city fell
nearby. No good at all, his teacher acknowledged.
Then there were backyard bomb shelters, which briefly became
the rage during the missile crisis of 1962, when it was learned the Soviets had
slipped nuclear-tipped missiles into Cuba and pointed them at the United
States.
After a tense, two-week standoff between President John F.
Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that some believe brought the world
the closest it's ever come to nuclear war, the missiles were removed and the
shelters faded from public interest.
Now they, too, seem to be having a revival.
"When Trump took office it doubled our sales, and then
when he started making crazy statements we got a lot more orders," says
Walton McCarthy of Norad Shelter Systems LLC of Garland, Texas. "Between
now and a year ago we've quadrupled our sales."
His competitor, California-based Atlas Survival Shelters,
says it sold 30 shelters in three days last week. During its first year in
business in 2011 it sold only 10.
Bill Miller, a 74-year-old retired film director living in
Sherborn, Massachusetts, thinks these days are more nerve-wracking than the
standoff in October 1962.
"I think it's much, much crazier, scarier times,"
he said. "I think the people who were in charge in the Kennedy
administration had much more of a handle on it."
Nathan Guerrero, a 22-year-old political science major from
Fullerton, California, agrees, saying he learned in history class that the
"shining example" of a way to resolve such a conflict was how
Kennedy's brother and attorney general, Robert Kennedy, brokered the tense
negotiations.
"But knowing the way the current administration has
sort of been carrying itself, it doesn't look like they are keen to solving
things diplomatically," he said.
"As a young person, honestly, it's pretty
unsettling," he continued.
Had he given any thought to building a backyard bomb
shelter?
"I'd be lying if I said such crazy things haven't
crossed my mind," he said, laughing nervously. "But in reality it
doesn't strike me as I'd be ready to go shopping for bunkers yet."
Instead, he studies for law school and tries "not to think too much about
it."
Other Americans are more sanguine about the possibility of
nuclear war. Rob Stapleton has lived in Anchorage, Alaska, since 1975, and he
is aware that Alaska has been considered a possible target because it is within
reach of North Korean missiles.
"There's been some discussion about it around the beer
barrel and I'm sure the United States is taking it seriously, but we're not too
concerned around here," he said.
Alaska is so vast and spread out, said Stapleton, that he
and his friends can't imagine why North Korea would waste its time attacking
The Last Frontier.
"I mean sure you'd be making a statement, but you'd not
really be doing any damage."
